An ongoing battle of power emanated between the world richest man Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump, the feud started at a simmer last week, began bubbling on Wednesday and became a full-on boil on Thursday afternoon in the Oval Office.
It began with Musk complaining about the centerpiece of Trump’s legislative agenda, accusing of betraying promises to cut federal spending.
“I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful,” Musk said. “But I don’t know if it could be both.”
He argued that his tariffs “will cause a recession in the second half of this year” and accusing him of lying. He also said it was “very unfair” that the legislation would eliminate tax incentives for electric vehicles.
Shortly before announcing his departure, Musk said he was “disappointed” by legislation that Trump called the “big beautiful bill” because it would increase the deficit. The measure includes tax cuts, more money for border security and changes to Medicaid that would leave fewer people with health insurance.
When Musk’s 130 days as a “special government employee” ended last week, the two had a chummy Oval Office send-off, with a golden key to the White House and hints that Musk might someday return
The criticism didn’t prevent Trump from giving Musk a send-off in the Oval Office, where he presented his outgoing adviser with a ceremonial key: “Elon is really not leaving,” Trump said. “He’s going to be back and forth.”
Musk said, “I’ll continue to be visiting here and be a friend and adviser to the president.”
One wonder if Trump and Musk can find some way to step back from a battle that is tearing them apart as the tech billionaire opined that the president should be impeached and claimed that the president’s name is in the infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s file.
Trump fired back: “I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago,” the president posted. “This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress.”
The president went further to accused that Musk is irked because he had “asked him to leave” his administration, that the tech titan had “gone CRAZY.”
The president threatened Musk’s voluminous business dealings with the federal government, which form the lifeblood of his SpaceX programme.
“The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon’s governmental subsidies and contracts,” Trump posted on his own social media website.
Musk called for Trump’s impeachment and dared him to cut funding for his companies.
Musk also said he was accelerating the decommissioning of his Dragon spacecraft, which the US relies on to carry American astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station.
But hours later, he appeared to back down from that threat, saying in response to a post on X urging him to cool off: “Good advice. Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”
His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, offered only a tepid pushback to Musk’s allegations and accusations.
“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted,” she said.
53-year-old Musk is an immigrant from South Africa who struck it rich in Silicon Valley. In addition to running Tesla and SpaceX, he owns the social media company X among others.
Musk endorsed Trump after the Republican candidate was nearly assassinated in Butler, Pennsylvania, and he began spending millions to support him. His social media megaphone was a powerful addition to Trump’s comeback campaign, magnifying his efforts to court tech leaders and young, very online men
After the election, Musk was a fixture around Mar-a-Lago, posing for photos with Trump’s family, joining them for dinner, sitting in on meetings. Instead of growing tired of his “first buddy,” Trump made plans to bring Musk along to Washington, appointing him to lead a cost-cutting initiative known as the Department of Government Efficiency.
By: Adeoye Olorunseun Elizabeth
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